The mind boggling ames window. #science#brain#mind#

I'll hold it at the same level as your eyes, and we'll let it go.

Now you know that it's turning around in circles.

In fact, if you look at it from above, you can see that it's turning around in a circle.

But now your brain is doing something strange.

It's telling you that it's not going around in a circle, but it's oscillating.

In other words, it's turning partway, stopping, and then going back the other way.

Now, that's a strange effect, isn't it?

But if you think that's strange, wait till I add something through the middle.

What am I going to add?

Well, I'm going to add a ballpoint pen.

And to do that...

I've placed a little piece of double-sided sticky tape on the ballpoint pen.

You can use ordinary sticky tape if you like.

I'll place it right through the centre of the window and press it in place like that.

Now this time, by fixing on the pen, you'll be able to see that the pen is going around in a circle and not going backwards and forwards.

But what's your brain going to tell you about the window?

Will your brain allow you to see the window going around in a circle with the pen?

Or are you going to see something really strange?

Well, have a look at that.

That's unbelievable, isn't it?

You can see the pen going around in a circle, but your brain is telling you that the window is going partway around and turning and going the other way.

And yet in order to do that, the two things have to pass through one another, the pen and the window.

You know it's not possible.

You know it can't happen.

And yet as you look at it, you see them going through one another every time they go around.